Snow Stops Play
Trip Start
Apr 16, 2011
1
43
69
Trip End
Ongoing
National Park Village, North Island, New Zealand
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
The day before I'd put my name down to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, which lonely planet describes at the most reputable one day walk in NZ. Being the only keen one on the bus, the rest of the group were quite happy when the harsh weather conditions prevented the opportunity, giving us all lie-in instead. I still to this day think part of it was the driver couldn’t be bothered to get up and take everyone over at ridic o’clock just for me. Oh well.
Leaving around 9am, we made our way out through the windy roads once again. As we got more into the heart of the national park towards lunchtime, white blanketed fields and mountains surrounded us. Just divine! A quick coffee treat and the driver took us into Whakapapa village (pronounced fuck-a-papa). En route we also checked out some waterfalls which had some involvement in the Lord of the Rings movies. Carrying a coffee with my trusty walking boots was fairly tough on the icy, snowy terrain. In Whakapapa we took a look at the visitor centre getting knowledge deep on the volcanic, mountainous area. As we checked out Le Grand Chateau (a posh alpine hotel), the centre piece of the village, we considered a posh treat but instead just got involved in more snowball banter.
Back on the bus, then checked into the National Park Lodge, some of the nicest accommodation along the way; a proper alpine vibe going down. With the cold weather I treated myself to a cooked breakfast then took a nap in the toasty room for a couple of hours; with little else to do in the area. I forced myself out into the snow, to pick up some supplies for dinner. So I returned, it was time to tackle that goat leg. It took me a while as I tried to hack off chunks of meat with the blunt knives at my disposal. With little options in the small shop, I was attempting a goat goulash. After simmering/boiling away for an hour and a half I was too hungry too wait any longer and the electric hobs were far too aggressive to control. Unfortunately it wasn’t a great success. The flavour was there, but I didn’t know too much about the meat, it was fairly tough. It probably needed a good 3 hours simmering away, a difficult task on those hobs. That’s my excuse anyway.
Later some of us checked out the lodge bar, had some drinks and played killer darts. I cleaned up pretty much. We then bumped into the Blue Duck team from the day before who had made the trip here for their 'Christmas’ celebration. Christmas because it was the coldest time of year apparently. Anyway soon enough I was being pointed out as the great shot once again. TAKE. We all chatted about that and other less important things. These guys were here for a party, and so German Alex brought along his best party chat. When asked what he thought of New Zealand he started going into the intricacies of energy and heat conversation, whipping out terms such as Kilowatt-hours and boasting about double glazed windows. Classic. At this point, I picked up on his consistent use of (adopt German accent), "for example, some-fing liiiike…." when explaining pretty much anything. I began to rip this off, and would continue to, maybe leading to the demise of his admiration for me; which had been noted by others. Party chat over, the toasty room was a-calling.
